Berfrois

August 2020

Adam Staley Groves: Pondering My 2020 Vote

Adam Staley Groves: Pondering My 2020 Vote

I actively supported Obama in 2008. I voted for him and I still feel it was the right thing to do. But I did not vote for Obama in 2012, or for Clinton in 2016. Why did I not vote?

Read More

Soaring Above the Skylark

Soaring Above the Skylark

At the summit stood a stone Shinto gate framed by chestnut trees. I climbed the worn stone steps to find an overgrown shrine filled with moss-coated sculptures—images of Buddhist deities and elderly sages in flowing robes...

Read More

Serious Kailyarding

Serious Kailyarding

During its wildly popular late-nineteenth-century pomp, Kailyard literature (so-named for a cabbage patch) was characterized by sentimental depictions of rural Scottish folk in all their close-knit charm...

Read More

When was salt and snow first used to produce ice cream?

When was salt and snow first used to produce ice cream?

The earliest form of ice cream seems to have been produced a little before Della Porta started freezing wine...

Read More